Jews in Germany: An Interview with Henryk Broder
The scourge of German political correctness takes on the country’s leading Jewish organization.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany claims to represent “all the Jews in Germany.” Shortly after the Second World War, when the Central Council was founded, that was not a lot — according to the Central Council’s own estimate, a mere 15,000 persons. Up until the late 1980s, the number remained in the low tens of thousands. In the meanwhile, as a result of an influx of Jewish “refugees” from the former Soviet Union, it has reportedly ballooned to over 100,000. Henryk Broder, one of Germany’s best known and most controversial political commentators, has been a frequent critic of the Central Council. On October 21, however, Broder created a sensation by announcing that he was seeking the Central Council’s presidency.
“The official representation of Jews in Germany is in a miserable condition,” Broder wrote in the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel:
The president [Charlotte Knoblauch] — who is internally known as “Aunt Charlie” — seems to be overwhelmed by the job. … What the Central Council does or does not do is determined by its general secretary [Stefan Kramer], who is attempting to compensate for the increasing insignificance of the organization through tactical alliances and senseless hyperactivity. Most recently, he compared the former finance commissioner of Berlin, Thilo Sarrazin, to Hitler and Goebbels on account of Sarrazin’s critical remarks about immigrants who are unwilling to integrate. Then, he apologized for the faux pas in such a way as to prove one thing above all: that he has no idea what he is talking about.
(On the Thilo Sarrazin controversy, see the PJM report here.) “I am convinced that there are no particular Jewish interests,” Broder continued:
Whether someone eats kosher or halal or prefers pork chops is a private matter. The same goes for when and to which God one prays. Freedom of religion also includes the right to be unreligious or antireligious and to make fun of one’s own God and that of one’s neighbors without being threatened. Freedom, democracy, and the rule of law are the values that have to be aggressively defended. By Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, and heretics, by Aryans and vegetarians, by women and men, heteros and homos. My yarmulke is in the ring.
John Rosenthal spoke with Henryk Broder for Pajamas Media. The following interview was conducted on Tuesday, October 27. On Saturday, October 31, Broder announced that he would not be seeking the Central Council’s presidency, after all. “Germany likes troublemakers, unconventional thinkers, and outsider candidates,” Broder wrote in an article in the weekly Der Spiegel, “but only so long as they make sure that everything stays the same.” Moreover, “the job is one for an early-riser,” he added
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John Rosenthal: You’ve long been a critic of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. You’ve said, for instance, that it has become nothing more than an official instance for accepting expressions of (German) remorse. So why do you want now to become its president?
Henryk Broder: I want to see if one can shake up this somewhat old and rusty structure. I know, of course, that my chances are slim: really, next to nothing. But as [the German author and filmmaker] Herbert Achternbusch once said: “You have no chance. So use it!” For me, it is not so much about becoming the president of the Central Council. But I’ve noticed how just the announcement of my candidacy has produced a kind of avalanche of discussion. People are talking about what is the Central Council, what it should be, what it accomplishes, what it doesn’t accomplish. So, it’s put the very question of the Central Council and the representation of Jews on the agenda. To that extent, it is already a small success.
J.R. Holocaust denial is illegal in Germany. You have said that as president of the Central Council you would militate for overturning this law. Why? And, above all, why should specifically the president of the Central Council of Jews do that?
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John Rosenthal’s writings on European politics and transatlantic relations have appeared in English, French, and German in such leading publications as Policy Review, Les Temps Modernes, and Merkur. He holds a PhD in philosophy and he taught political philosophy and classical German philosophy before turning to journalism. More of his work can be found at Transatlantic Intelligencer.
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7 Comments
1. Transatlantic Intelligencer | Jews in Germany: An Interview with Henryk Broder:[...] my interview with Henryk Broder here. The interview was conducted over a week ago — and then, unfortunately, held for publication [...]
Nov 4, 2009 - 2:08 am 2. Jews in Germany: An Interview with Henryk Broder | Secolul 21 ~ 21st Century:[...] link: Jews in Germany: An Interview with Henryk Broder This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Pajamas Media. You can follow any responses to this [...]
Nov 4, 2009 - 6:41 am 3. paul_unalaska:I have Jewish friends in Dusseldorf who are very much involved with the community. I haven’t heard much dissent from them, though I’m only there ~ 1 month during visits. The environment to me seems very copasetic.
Then again, I’m not Jewish nor live in Germany. Interesting interview. I’ll definitely research more into the subject.
Nov 4, 2009 - 12:40 pm 4. spindok:The small Jewish community in Germany needs a voice and there is good reason for some sort of central representation.
This very local politics which I cannot pretend to comment on in detail. I appreciate the report by Mr. Rosenthal.
Myself and my family are Jewish.
I have some sympathetic connection to it myself. In my late childhood (age 10-11) I lived with my family there, as my dad was US Army. We were becoming more religiously involved at the time and to get to any kind of religious community we had to go to Stassburg, France to get Kosher meat and so on. But US base was not the same as living as a German.
My wife was born in Germany, her parents were both Holocaust survivors. They had landed in Israel after the war but returned to Germany to take advantage of an opportunity to start a business there.
Anyway, they landed within a few streets of me within US heartland, in less than a decade. The rest is just a normal story for Americans. We are used to such things from many other groups here.
Let us be honest. Judaism in Europe was wiped out. Same for the Sephardic (north african, arabic, middle eastern, ethiopian, and persian) communities outside of Israel. UK – I dont even want to talk about.
It is an easier task in some ways when you have a small community, to be somehow ‘protected’. Harder when you are in the headlines every day.
German Jews, I am sure, know that all of this protectionism has little to do with concern for you.
Spindok
Nov 4, 2009 - 4:00 pm 5. Dolorosa:I think the laws are not the same for everyone. There is Holocaust denial that is against the law and not only in Germany either. However, one can freely deny communism which murdered millions of people and that’s okay. I don’t think it should be a crime and people should be free to discuss it without fear of going to jail.
Nov 4, 2009 - 4:14 pm 6. misanthropicus:There has always been a tension within the Jewish European communities vis-a-vis the correct amount of integration in one or another nation (disclaimer: I am not Jewish) – and I remember reading a few years an interview with Bronffman in LA Times, interview where he complained that the French Jews are first French, then Jews.
Nov 4, 2009 - 9:14 pm 7. ReConUSMC:I think Broder is somehow hovering over the same problem, i.e. in what extent a Jew can or should be a German -
Please Jews on PAJAMA MEDIA if you will, please tell us all why you vote Socialist over 60 % of the time since Obama hates Israel and is truly a friend of their Moslem enemies WHILE Jews fled Socialist countries in eastern europe .
Nov 5, 2009 - 1:19 pmNot to mentions Jews like Soros , The head of the ACLU , ACORN and most of Hollywood and all jews in congress all 51 say they are financial Conservatives but Socially Socialist ?
If you vote Socialist you have attack financial Conservatism .Duh !
Please explain .